Originally Posted by
lightbulbs
Weird how they are quiet on how they will fly the transcons. I could imagine a few wide bodies doing LAX-JFK but not BOS or SFO. So that leaves either XLRs on JFK-SFO or a reconfigured a321 with presumably the new suites designed for transcon (so swapping one sub fleet for another?). I wonder if they reconfigure a normal a321 non XLR with these new suites what they config will be (20 new J suite seat, no PE and MCE+Y? I wonder if they will mix the XLR and reconfigured a321 fleets or keep the XLR for thin Int’l and just have a new dedicated sub fleet with lie flats for the transcon? The transcon upgrades might get hard if they lose 10 lie flats seats and a lot more Y seats…
You articulated well what my concern is, how lie-flats and upgrade chances will work on non-JFK/LAX transcons.
- I agree with you that a widebody isn't likely given how AA's struggled to fill the A321T, unless frequencies went down to like one flight a day, which would be a separate problem for the non-leisure transcons.
- It doesn't sound like they're creating a new A321 transcon fleet given the language "American will also retrofit its Airbus A321T fleet to align those 16 aircraft with the rest of its A321 fleet" which I interpret as turning them into regular Oasis planes. Also AA seems very motivated to get rid of subfleets.
XLR feels like a waste on a transcon flight that a regular narrowbody can serve, and is
designed to unlock long-range/thin destinations. But given the above I'd guess it
is the new transcon plane. Then what I'll most miss is the A321T's 2-2 J config which made upgrades to a lie-flat possible:
That's roughly the same number of lie-flat J seats but 1.5x the number of economy passengers fighting for the same number of upgrades.
On the plus side, you get a
really nice seat if you do catch the upgrade. And the W 2-2 consolation prize is better than 3-3 MCE.
It sounds like my disappointment fits the ethos of the rest of this thread: I wish they weren't so motivated by doors and getting to a 1-1 config. For transcons, more lie flats and frequency is what I've cared about most. My dream narrowbody config
is probably La Compagnie, with J in 2-2 with 32 Y/44 J but AA domestic upgrade rules.
